The core is quite possibly the most overlooked and yet the most important areas of the body to train.

Without a stable and strong core you are unable to transfer the power of the legs and arms in an integrated way that allows you to generate your full potential in all aspects of rugby fitness.

What’s the difference between Core Stability and Core Strength?

Core stability is a widely defined incorrectly, and what most people prescribe as core stability training is in effect core strength training.  I have been fortunate enough to learn, firsthand, from one of the world’s leading experts (Mark Comerford) exactly what the difference between core stability and core strength is.

Put simply your core stability muscles need to be working all the time, although you should not really be aware of having to engage them.  They are mainly deep stabilising muscles that work on what’s called the feedforward system (Hodges & Richardson, 1997).  Although there are some ‘bracing’ strategies you can use to amplify the engagement of these muscles.

It is possible to have these muscles not working correctly and not have any injury or pain, it’s just that the risk factors of becoming injured in the future are greatly raised.  It is possible to re-train these muscles if they need to be, but the exercises are far from easy (you do most of them not moving any muscle that you can see!), in the following circumstances I would recommend seeking out a professional.

• You have suffered from recurring back pain in the last 6-12 months.
• You have been injured on and off for a while – it may look like this sort of pattern:
  • Playing sport you sprain your ankle
  • Rehab Ankle injury
  • Return to sport and pull groin
  • Rehab Groin Injury
  • Return to Sport and pull hamstring
  • Rehab Hamstring Injury
  • Return to sport and get back pain

Something as simple as twisting your ankle can lead to this type of sequence.  As sometimes the deep stabilising muscles in the spine ‘switch off’ (‘multifidus’ for any geeks, like me, out there) in response to your altered walking pattern, due to you swollen ankle.  In this scenario or any similar I would recommend you seek out a professional.

If you are fit and healthy and don’t get recurring injuries then it’s probably all fine and other than some bracing strategies you should be all fine.  For a more in depth description and explanation of bracing and retraining strategies, check out Fit 4 Rugby DVD

So if that’s Core Stability, what’s Core Strength?

Core strength is what most people think core stability is.  If you’re core stability muscles are working correctly then doing core strength exercises is all you really need to worry about.

When you walk, squat, lunge, run, bend over, basically move, then your core strength muscles are called into action.  These muscles are still stability muscles in the main but their role is to help transfer the power across the body and stabilise large areas of the core.

You can work your core strength muscles by just simply squatting, especially if you use the front squat, however what squatting doesn’t do is challenge any rotation or sideways movement.  Now if you were to squat with only weight on one side of the bar, well then you would have to.  An enormous amount of extra work is created in the body when you do this.

From the arms, to the shoulder, to the spine, to the hips and all the muscles that is associated with those areas.

Now this is not something I would recommend you just go out and try, especially do not try and do a squat with your normal weight all on one side…great didn’t think you were silly enough to go off an try that.   But as a starting point you can try squatting with just one dumbbell at your side.

Just because you can squat heavy doesn’t necessarily mean that you have a strong core in all the directions you need to be strong in.  As I mentioned above, the squat does challenge the core muscles when done correctly but far too many people use the ‘bell bracing’ manoeuvre, which ultimately leads to an incorrectly functioning core.  I cover this fully in the Fit 4 Rugby DVD

There are three stages to core stability exercises:

1. Static and Linear Exercises
2. Exercises that challenge the core not to rotate
3. Exercise that challenge the core as it rotates, and be able to control the rotational forces

Here’s a quick example of a Stage 1 exercise:

Static – The plank – also known as the prone hold

Linear – Stability Ball Half Jack Knifes

Example Stage 2 Exercise:

Plank Single Leg Hip Extension

Example Stage 3 Exercise

Stability Ball Internal Rotation Reaches

Your core is not only trained when you do traditional abdominal and stability ball exercises, but is also called into operation if you do a resistance exercise such as squats, but with only one dumbbell in one hand.  The extra forces needed in the body to resist you falling over to the side with the weight, cause your abs to really fire up.  (this would be considered a Stage 2 exercise).

Here’s a real rugby playing example of someone with a weak core.   You are strong, in fact you can bench press well over 150 kg and squat nearly 200kg.  Yet whenever you go into contact you get driven backwards.  Because your core is weak you are unable to transfer the strength in the legs through the core into the upper body where you make contact.  The weak link is the core, and without adequate transference of force from lower body to upper body, because of the weak core, you are not able to burst through a tackle.